Charlotte's Australasia Top Five
Trip Start
Dec 02, 2007
1
28
55
Trip End
Sep 01, 2008
Melbourne,
Australia
Sunday, May 4, 2008
By far and away the best thing about visiting this part of the world was spending time with family and friends in Australia. It was so lovely to see everyone and have some time just being able to relax with familiar company, hearing everyone's news and enjoying a few home comforts! However, as this was an exceptional part of our trip, and our main reason for visiting Australia, we have decided to keep the top five restricted to the parts of Australia and New Zealand which could make anybody's itinerary, even those not lucky enough to have a bunch of fantastic people to spend time with whilst so far away from home.
So, in no particular order, here's my top five:
Red Centre
I now cannot believe I spent so much time in Australia on previous without visiting the Northern Territory, let alone the Red Centre. This part of the country, along with parts of Western Australia, which we visited last year, are beautiful, rich with the indigenous history of the country and full of wildlife that I had previously only seen at Australia Zoo. Although, our entire Northern Territory adventure was fantastic and we loved our little campervan, visiting Kings' Canyon, Uluru and Kata Tjuta were the highlights, of twelve days which at this stage may even make my my overall top ten, when we come to writing our final entries to this blog come September.
Tassie
Having learnt so much about indigenous Australia in the Northern Territory, our short visit to Tasmania gave us the opportunity to discover more about European settlement. The port city of Hobart and the ex-penal colony of Port Arthur are steeped in modern Australian history and fascinating places to visit. We thoroughly enjoyed the a light hearted ghost tour of the old prison town the night we arrived, followed the next day by a tour telling the more concrete stories of the British prisoners, military personnel and civil servants who formed one of the first European communities in Tasmania in the late 1800s. This part of our trip came just after the half way point of our journey, and was very timely in that it was a reminder of the beautiful country we will be returning to in the autumn, just as we were beginning to get depressed about dredging through the rain to the Northern Line on a Monday morning! Driving through Tasmania felt like visiting pretty Cotswold villages, the Lakes and parts of Devon, with Hobart itself reflecting aspects of London, Southampton's city walls and the old shops and pubs of Winchester. I guess holidaying at home for the next five years to make up for all the flying etc. this trip won't be so tough after all!
The Great Barrier Reef
This was another Aussie icon which somehow I had missed until this trip. Despite the fact we didn't have the clear blue skies, or indeed the clear blue seas of the tourist brochures, snorkelling and diving amongst the coral and marine life was still a day I will remember for a very long time. I can't wait to see how our under water camera fared when we get back home.
Cricket
I have come to love cricket in fairly recent years, initially enjoying the game either because England was winning or because I was really spending the match chatting to my friends and drinking nice wine after a typically wonderful week at work. A total of five One Day Internationals and two Test Matches later (the majority in NZ), and I am happily joining Piet in purchasing season tickets for the county game come summer 2009. It is just a shame he'll be at the Oval, whilst I'm sitting in the Rose Bowl...
Walking the Queen Charlotte Track
Walking a 18km section of a 71km hike was not the way I had envisaged spending my 29th birthday; however, that was what the timing of our New Zealand trip dictated and it turned out to be a great way to celebrate! Stunning views, a variety of wildlife and some colourful characters mean it won't be a birthday I forget in a hurry.
